The invention relates to a sequential coupling guard which insures that a plurality of electrical plugs are connected to a plurality of electrical receptacles in a predetermined sequence.
Plug and receptacle type connectors are well known in the art. When connecting a number of plugs to receptacles, operator safety requires connecting the plugs to the ground and neutral receptacles before connecting other plugs to the power phase receptacles. Once all of the plugs have been connected to the receptacles, operator safety also requires disconnecting the power plugs before the neutral and the ground plugs. Although the power, ground, and neutral plugs may be differently sized and shaped in order to prevent misconnection with the receptacles, such coding arrangements do not insure that the plugs are connected to the receptacles in the desired sequence. Instructions for coupling the plugs to the receptacles are usually mounted adjacent to the receptacle assembly, but such instructions do not insure that the correct coupling sequence is used. There is therefore a need in the art to provide a coupling guard which forces an operator to couple a plurality of plugs to mating receptacles in the proper sequence.